Atlantic Express
 

CAA OF2 today published an application for a Class A (Over 20 seats) for:

Skyblue Aviation Limited trading as Atlantic Express
Unit 5
Merlin Business Park
Fairoak Close
Clyst Honiton
Exeter
EX5 2UL

I know there was the Atlantic Express operation from STN to JER, any connection?

skyblue
 

atr 42 is now a jet ???

G-DRFC
 

According to Jethro's this is the aircraft that Atlantic Express are using.

Is this a case of Air Atlantic having an aircraft they can't/don't want to use but can't get rid of? (Shades of Air Wales / Flightline / Aurigny?)

Yak 97

You could well be correct on what you are saying.
What has this aircraft been doing over the last year any way, ACMI work?
She stopped the schedule she was opperateinfg over a year ago now.
Still a mystery.

G-DRFC
 

It's been loitering on the west apron at Cov. SP-KEE, ex G-IONA, ex White Eagle also came back in December, might be joining it? IIRC G-DRFC was owned by Bravo Aviation, a leasing company with MC at the top.

I believe that for the 3rd attempt at Altantic Express it will be run in conjunction with Sky Blue Airways at Exeter, with the plane being based there and Sky Blue providing crew. The commercial side will be run from Coventry apparently.

There is an element of "yawn" about all this. Since Atlantic Airlines was seperated and the DC-6 stopped running freight, AA seem to be going round in circles not quite sure what to do.

Atlantic did have quite a prosperous set up a few years ago with the ATR but they were let down by a commercial department that was nowhere near as proactive as they should have been.

As a result, once the contracts dried up, aircraft and crews were sat on the ground while the commercial 'team' sat waiting for the phone to ring. When that didn't happen, the only outcome was redundancies and was ultimately the end of Air Atlantique as an ACMI operator.

A real shame as they had dedicated crews, the majority of which had come through the cadet system and a real camaraderie existed that resulted in an operation that continued the good reputation that Atlantic had earnt over many years of ad-hoc charter operations.

I'd like to see the operation become a success again, and perhaps with Andy's acumen lobbed in, perhaps it will be . . . . .

Good luck to all those involved.

There seems a deal of understandable confusion here since the split into various independent bits of the Atlantique empire. Atlantic Airlines is the freight part with electras and now an increasing raft of ATP's. The ATr's are part of the Air Atlantique part which mainly comprises the historic fleet including the DC6's and DC3's.